The Role of Authoritarian Personality Syndrome in Quality of Communication (A Cultural Approach)

Objective: This study aims to examine the relationship between authoritarian personality syndrome and initial communication with strangers within two cultural conditions (intercultural and intracultural). Focusing on authoritarian personality traits as defined by the RWA (Right-Wing authoritarian) scale by Bob Altemeyer, this research measures their influence towards the quality of initial encounters with strangers, based on Uncertainty/Anxiety Management theory by William B. Gudykunst. Anxiety and uncertainty are examined in both cultural conditions, compounded by the cultural characteristics between the interlocutors. Also, aiming to examine possible correlations with the authoritarian personality traits, parenting styles are included with respect to the typologies of Diana Baumrind. Materials and Methods: In a study (N=111) conducted among Dutch and German Maastricht University FPN students, participants were asked to measure the levels of quality for their last communications with both an intercultural and an intracultural stranger, along with a personality trait questionnaire and a questionnaire about their personal experiences with parenting styles. Results: The authoritarian personality syndrome did not prove as a successful predictor of quality in communication, meanwhile correlations of different significances were observed for the levels of anxiety and uncertainty and this personality syndrome. The results provided partial support for the hypotheses of the study. Initially, the quality of communication was found lower with strangers from different cultures, as examined by measuring the difference between the scores in the two cultural conditions. Furthermore, authoritarianism demonstrated increased correlations with higher levels of uncertainty for both cultural conditions (p=0.053 and p=0.036 for intercultural and intracultural conditions respectively), in comparison to higher levels of anxiety (p=0.105 and p=0.304). The results of the study inspired a theoretical discussion on the relationship between authoritarianism as a personality syndrome and the cognitive/affective processes of communication. Finally, a weak correlation was found between authoritarian parenting styles and authoritarian personality traits.